False claims of child prostitution ring hurt many says Francis

(ANSA) - Vatican City, March 6 - Pope Francis told a group
of Rome priests Thursday that he "shared the pain" of priests
suffering "unjust wounds" caused by allegations against some of
them.
"Lots of people have been injured, by material problems, by
scandals, including in the Church," the pope said during a
meeting with priests inside the Vatican.

He was referring to an incident in March 2013 when former
priest Patrizio Poggi was convicted and sent to prison for five
years for paedophilia, and also denounced other priests, saying
they were involved in a child prostitution ring.

Police later said his claims were unfounded and Poggi was
charged with aggravated slander.
According to police, his accusations were driven by
"resentment tied to personal reasons".

The pope said the case hurt many in the Church.

"I shared the pain of some of you, of the entire
priesthood, for the accusations made against a group of you,"
Francis told the meeting.

"I have talked to some of you who have been accused and saw
the pain of these unjust wounds, (this) madness, and I want to
say publicly that I am close to (you)," he said.

Francis said he also apologized on behalf of the Church
because the false accusations came from within its ranks
His comments come following an interview published
Wednesday, in which Pope Francis defended the Church's response
to a long series of scandals about child sex abuse by clergymen.

In an interview with Corriere della Sera ahead of the
first anniversary of his election as pontiff next week the
Argentine pontiff said: "The cases of abuse are terrible because
they leave very deep wounds".

"Benedict XVI was very courageous and he opened a road.

The Church has come a long way. Perhaps more than anyone.

"The statistics about the phenomenon of violence against
children are shocking, but they also show clearly that the
overwhelming majority of the abuses take place in family or
neighbourhood environments.
"The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution
that has moved with transparency and responsibility. No one else
has done more.

"And yet the Church is the only one to be attacked".
his week's report by the
Last month the United Nations Committee for the Rights of
the Child issued a wide-ranging report that excoriated the
Vatican for adopting policies that it said allowed sexual abuse
of tens of thousands of children by clergymen and demanded
immediate action.

The Vatican responded by claiming the committee showed
"grave limits" in a misunderstanding "of the specific nature of
the Holy See".

Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi accused the committee of
prejudice.

He said the committee bowed to prejudicial arguments from
anti-Vatican NGOs.

"The insistence on particular cases" showed attention was
given to "well-known NGOs contrary to the Catholic Church
itself, and not to positions of the Church and the Holy See", he
said.

Lombardi said the Vatican was entitled to be "baffled" by
the Geneva-based committee's failure to understand the makeup of
the Church, not just as a religious institution but as a
juridical entity.

Critics of the report argue it asks too much of the Holy
See, which despite being the central government of the
international Church is nevertheless incapable of directly
overseeing every local parish that caters to the world's more
than one billion Catholics.

For instance, it would be impossible, critics add, to track
spending on children in Catholic institutions worldwide, or to
create an international monitoring body to be made accessible to
all children in all the Church's hundreds of thousands of
educational institutions, as the report urges it to do.

"The lack of comprehension of the nature of the Holy See is
grave," said Lombardi.

"It's true that our structure is different from other
States, making it difficult to understand our role or
responsibility. But that's been explained in great detail over
the years.

"Is (the Committee) unable or unwilling to understand? In
either case we have the right to be baffled".

The Vatican said the Committee was prejudiced and had
ignored efforts to stop pedophiles and help victims over the
last decade, bowing to prejudicial arguments from anti-Vatican
NGOs.

"The insistence on particular cases" showed attention was
given to "well-known NGOs contrary to the Catholic Church
itself, and not to positions of the Church and the Holy See," he
said.

The Committee also overstepped its brief by criticising
Catholic ethical doctrine, voicing "its own ideological vision
on sexuality" in "moral judgements on abortion and
contraception", said Lombardi.

Nevertheless there is "no clash" between the Vatican and
the United Nations, he added, after some ardent Vatican
supporters insisted the Vatican withdraw its signature to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child.

"The Holy See has always given strong moral support to the
United Nations as a place of gathering between nations, to
promote world peace and harmony among peoples," said Lombardi.

The spokesman went on to credit "higher" officials in the
UN "who have always understood the importance of the Holy See's
moral and religious authority".